SCENE ONE:
HIGH SCHOOL GYM, LOCKER ROOM, NIGHT. Florescent LIGHTS flicker on and off and swing from the ceiling. Lockers are either closed, doors open or smashed in. BLOOD is smeared along walls or pooled on the floor.

EDDY JACKSON, 19, has a quiet deep gaze. He wears a black t-shirt and jeans. He is sitting on an old wooden bench with his friend STAN HERNANDEZ, 20, wearing a worn leather jacket. Stan stands up and begins to hop around.

STAN
Come on, man. After me, there's
just your family. You won't be
able to do it. You know the rules.

Eddy stands up, cracks his knuckles and faces Stan.

EDDY
My family, easy. My best friend,
killing you will be the hardest.

STAN
Look into their eyes, the worst is
when you see your reflection in their
eyes when they're dying. My family was
bigger, I had cousins.

EDDY
I know the rules.

STAN
I already had to go through it, ain't
easy, I'm letting you know. I'm
not saying you can't kill, obviously
you can, family's just different, I'm
trying to save you.

Eddy lunges at Stan with his open bloodied hands.

2

SCENE TWO:
Urban family KITCHEN, rudimentary, clean, a hanging lamp, table with chairs. VIEW FROM WINDOW OF FIRE ESCAPE.
STACY JACKSON, 33, wears heavy make-up and bright clothes. Eddy stalks Stacy around the kitchen TABLE.

STACY
Fuck the rules, Eddy. They can't
just make them like that. Who are
they?

EDDY
They followed the rules, for a
hundred years. They lived in
reservations, slept in our infected
blankets, walked for miles and died.
Who were we to make the rules?

STACY
That was then, things have changed.

EDDY
Things have changed, and they now
make the rules.

ED JACKSON enters. He is 45, careful dresser, wearing a brown suit, has a haunted look.

STACY
Ed, tell him, Ed. We don't have to
do this.

ED
I killed my boss today. It almost felt
good.

Stacy starts to cry, the make-up runs down her face.

STACY
Ed, this is stupid, they're just
rules, they made up.

EDDY
It's either me or you dad?

3
ED
I got her son, you go find grandpa.

SCENE FOUR:
Eddy exits the kitchen. Ed puts down his BRIEFCASE on the kitchen table. He CLICKS open the locks and opens the case to remove a bloodied STAPLER, his bloodied golden NAME-PLATE, and a bloodied PHONE with the cord still dangling from it.

STACY
We could talk to them. They'll
listen.

ED
I think they're done listening.

STACY
We could run.

ED
They're only doing what they have to
do.

STACY
But why?

ED
Why did we? We started it. We wanted it,
so we took the land. We felt threatened,
so we pinned them on dry land. We only
did what we felt is right. I mean, are
you judging them?

STACY
Two wrongs, Ed, don't make it. I'm
sorry.

ED
So am I, but them's the rules, Stacy.
Believe me, my first wife was easier
to do than you.

STACY
This isn't human.

4

ED
It's in the inherent violence of
Darwinian evolution, in which better-
adapted organisms replace those less
able to survive.

STACY
What?

ED
It's something my boss said before
I killed him.

Ed heaves away the kitchen TABLE and with STAPLER in one hand, and NAME-PLATE in the other, he leaps at Stacy.

SCENE FIVE:
FRONT PORCH of an old FARM HOUSE. Countryside, a peaceful landscape with vivid colors of Fall. Ed has his father RICHARD JACKSON pinned to the wooden floor with his hands clenched around his neck.

Richard, 70, is wearing a flannel shirt, jeans and a baseball cap. He struggles for air.

RICHARD
I'm glad you were to meet me here.

ED
Thanks for letting me stay here. I
don't know why we didn't use it more
often. It was a good idea of Eddy's,
I'm glad he found you here.

RICHARD
He's a smart boy, like his father.

ED
Not as much alike as I hoped,
sometimes, the music, and clothes.

RICHARD
Look at you two, both made it here,
both honoring the rules, you did
something right.
5
ED
Thanks dad.

Ed squeezes the last remaining breaths from Richard with his crusted hands from dried-blood. Ed stands up and
looks out into the wide open green pastures. Ed takes deep breath and exits into the HOUSE.

SCENE SIX:
Urban Family Kitchen: blood stained and no longer clean, hanging LAMP is gone, TABLE and CHAIRS are broken. VIEW FROM WINDOW OF FIRE ESCAPE. Ed and Eddy stand in KITCHEN.

ED
Grandpa said hi.

EDDY
Did you see them when you were at the
house?

ED
No, but I heard the horses beyond
the trees as they were coming up.

EDDY
They're going to love that house.

ED
Yeah, Eddy, I was thinking.

EDDY
What if we both died?

ED
Always thinking alike. What then?

EDDY
You know the rules, no one would
be able to live and join the Indian
tribe of their choosing.

ED
That's the rules.

EDDY
That's the rules.

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